Craigslist is a cool place to buy and sell stuff, it has a massive audience and you don’t have to pay the listing fees that Ebay charges. On the downside, though, Craigslist doesn’t have any method for conducting auctions, a proven way to get a good price for whatever you’re selling.
My friend Keith Teare solved that problem, though, by using a combination of a Craigslist listing for a computer he wanted to sell with a Google Docs spreadsheet and form to take bids on the item. Here’s how he did it.
Here’s the listing for his Power Mac G5. He points to a form (created with Google Docs) to accept bids, and a read-only spreadsheet showing the various bids. Each entry was timestamped, so he was able to cut off bids at the appropriate end time.
Bids ranged from $50 to $750 (although the high bid came in too late). The final price was $690. A total of 11 bids were placed.
Screen shots are below.
This is actually very creative.
How about a ho auction? Can craigster set that up baby?
This is a good idea and since I use craigslist all the time, I created a site to do just this:
http://craigbid.org
I hope someone else finds some use in this as well!
I think this is an innovative use of Google Docs, but it doesn’t get over one of the reasons of using eBay … the reputation system. I know you are giving a sarcastic laughter here, but as broken as eBay’s feedback system is,it is still better than no system whatsoever.
It seems to me that on the Google docs hack people can just bid with no intention to pay later or vice versa (create shill bidding)
Very creative, nevertheless.
Why do you need a feedback system?
Since exchanges are gonna be in person, you don’t pay until you receive what you won.
Because maybe as a seller you want to make sure that the person who won the auction will actually come and pay for the item? Duh …
You still don’t need a feedback system. If the winner doesn’t show up, you contact the next guy in line. Simple.
When talking about a feedback system as a seller I don’t care who wins the bid. As long as he/she pays me If I’m buying well I might need to know about who’s selling. But that too isn’t necessary because there is no 3rd party involved in the transaction
Duh…
Now if someone created a mashup that combined an auction with Facebook connect, you’d have a very interesting reputation system indeed. With built-in viral (and quasi-local) distribution, to boot!
why – “If the winner doesn’t show up, you contact the next guy in line…”" – you really don’t value your time. With a feedback system, you wouldn’t waste the trip of meeting someone who flakes on you.
I also think that Facebook connect would actually solve some of the feedback system. good comment samidh.
It’s not ebay, but look close at the example:
1. all bids are accepted, regardless of time/price.
2. it’s a local pickup / cash payment
reputation don’t matter . . . call the people who put in the bids from highest to lowest and sort out the shills.
it won’t work for a lot of cases, but it’s better than ebay for this scenario
Dantinpa take a look at our start up!
http://www.YouAuction.com
Bids
Comments
Video and Pics
Profiles
Intermail
local community
No ads!
well done . . your site looks drop deap simple, which is great. Ebay has gotten so feature rich, it’s a clunky pain.
good luck in building your listings – it would be great to have an alternative like this in the market.
…. It seems to me that on [?]
Don’t have a clue, but I will comment anyway.
Anjali Sen
From India
As long as TC is reporting on micro-mini mashups
.. Here is the tutorial on how the form/spreadsheet integration works
http://www.yout...h?v=E5CfuRTy1V4
this is neat
http://health.okguru.com
This is a great idea and very useful, if Craigslist decided to pursue this bidding option then ebay have a good competition.
Nat
What Michael said. I don’t expect your average eBay or Craigslist user to spend the time to do this, assuming they even know about Google Docs, but what a great way to avoid paying the fees eBay requires.
Craigslist is free for most categories, but not all, which is why I just prefer to use iList. I may have to try this guy’s method there.
AND counting down the arrival of the cease & desist in 3…2…1…
I have no idea how craigslist will try to squash this, but I’m sure they’ll be spending plenty of time pursuing it…time it could be spending finding a business model to pay for upgrading their Prodigy-era UI.
Seriously — we WANT ADS ON YOUR SITE. Please put them there. Then how ’bout a picture search of listings and an API so a brotha doesn’t have to hack up some MacGyver-type shit like this to get some basic freakin functionality. Ooooh – using all that nasty talk makes me feel like Carol Bartz…me likee…
That’s why I use iList, PVDude. With the exception of advertisement banners, we have just about everything you just said you want from Craigslist. Now we’re just working to spread the word.
I liked Clasilistados.org more than any site
What a great looking Craigslist .jpg!
A buddy and I have been doing this same thing for a few months. We get flagged once in a while and our posts are deleted. Craigslist TOU don’t seem to prohibit this, but it would be nice to hear something official.
Craigslist does forbid this:
http://www.crai...elp/faq#auction
“Can I put a link in my for sale posting pointing to an auction site like ebay?
No – craigslist is not an auction site. If you have something to offer, please post a set price. Please do not scalp or solicit bidding contests on craigslist, and do not link to offsite auctions on eBay or elsewhere.”
This is so much nicer than ebay.
Ebay is now so furiously bloated and overrun with powerseller garbage, banner ads, meaningless announcements, FEEs, and policy statements (policies which aren’t even enforced or understood by eBay’s own staff), the company has become fundamentally unworkable. I don’t even have an ebay account anymore, I closed it (disgustingly, it took ebay staff 220 days to close my account, from start to finish).
Ebay is history. It’s matter of time before a turn-key bidding site masters these types of DIY ad hocs auctions and makes them the norm.
The worst about ebay is that they charge you a fee to list, then charge a fee on your payment (since they own paypal).
Plus, its not an auction site anymore, with everyone doing the “buy now” that I can just go to the store and pick up for the same price.
are you serious? A DIY on using google docs and CL? Arrington, need some real news? How about writing something about the price of razors these days. Anyone else notice that?
Please specify if you mean disposable blade straight razors or electric razors, and we’ll get right on it.
disposable please. I’m sort of a retard.
This is innovative. Good post.
eBay is great. I’ve tried craigslist and I hate being haggled on a firm price, I hate the people who commit and then don’t pay up and i hate the ongoing emails from people.
Also, craigslist people are smarter. They know what something is worth.
I sold my original iPhone last month on eBay for $99. I sold my 2.6Ghz MacBook Pro that’s a year old for $2400.
I even sold a 1TB Western Digital Hard Drive for $150 ($20 over retail on a new model). eBay people are stupid and I always make back what I paid for an item so I’ll continue paying the 30 cent – 5 dollar listing fees if it means I don’t have to deal with jerks and can get screwed over at the last minute.
CL sucks and I’ve spent a long time trying to make it work. I use it in SF and there’s too many people. Too much information with shitty organization. If there’s a Craigslist for dummies book, I’ll read it. Until then, I’m using eBay.
that should have been an iPhone for $900.
you’re so awesome. can i touch your pee-pee?
Pretty nice,
Cheers
Sahar Sarid
Co founder Bido.com – social auction
lol, no wonder i’m overheating
I like the idea, but is there a way to prevent other bidders/net crawlers from seeing the personal information in the spreadsheet, like emails or names?
Don’t think so. GDocs is showing its limitations when used in this way. In fact some of the bidders may not be too pleased to have their email broadcast this way.
Good Idea
I started using ioffer.com Much better pricing than ebay.
I love it!
Using readily available technology to solve a common problem.
Hell, it’s not rocket science, but it gets the job done.
Michael I enjoyed this story, but what I enjoyed most about this post was the crunchbase data. Please keep us posted on the expected 2008 launch of fotonauts.
You can also use a site like SnappyStuff to list to your choice of marketplaces (craigslist, eBay, etc.) and networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). SnappyStuff will show you the top offers you have received and when you accept an offer, all of the listings across the web are updated. It’s not really open bidding – but an easy way to entertain multiple offers for one item listed on multiple sites.
ummm… the email addresses of all the bidders are in column D. having the text the same color as the background to hide them might fool complete idiots, but not everybody else.
Right, just copy/paste the cell in notepad to see the email address!?!
Innovative but not good enough…
Full marks for creativity.
Alas, Craiglist is very anti-bidding (I know from painful experience). This is definitely something that they would crack down on if it became a widespread practice.
really great idea.
This is such a good idea that I’m going to do the same thing right now:
http://sfbay.cr...1082885373.html
Just watching the activity is kind of interesting. I see that you were able to hide the email address too.
Nice.
How did you hide the email addresses on the public spread?
Great idea.
I saw the same idea on http://www.Clasilistados.org
beside many thing that is free and only 3 days post per day ,something I advice craigslist to add is scam filter.so far the use of Google doc make .”the presentations is appealing>and this is another tools the scam can trick there trap better with
Amazing! Truly amazing!
Did I miss something? Why do we need this spreadsheet for? Offers by e-mail will get you the same result.
Nice post! Check out my website as well http://macmaniapodcast.com.
Great article,very creative, goodstuff on ebay;they suck. i finally got smart and gave my good stuff to real auctioneers.they do the stuff,I get a check.Ya i pay a commis but it woprks out less the suck bay.
Check out abalauction.comor youtube them at abalauction. These companies are everywhere.
This is a good idea and since I use craigslist all the time, I created a site to do just this. I hope someone else finds some use in this!
http://craigbid.org
I don’t get how a read-only Google docs spreadsheet adds any value. Why not just update the CL ad with the ongoing list of bids?
I tried this yesterday I posted about 10 items.
It was going well until almost all got flagged and deleted.
In the description I put ( Best Offer ) and I didn’t put a price in the listings. I was just going to take Best Offers. Now I learned in Craigslist FAQ it is against Craigslist rules although it doesn’t say it in the TOU.
Anyone else experience this?
Hi, check out squaresandwich.com . My favorite solution for craigslist/ebay pain (I’m baised).